


Fic: A Requiem Of Peace

by phantomreviewer



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Child Abuse, Gen, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-09
Updated: 2011-07-09
Packaged: 2017-10-22 20:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/242299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomreviewer/pseuds/phantomreviewer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"No man is rich enough to buy back his past" & "There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies." -Oscar Wilde</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fic: A Requiem Of Peace

_**Fic: A Requiem Of Peace**_  
 **Title** : A Requiem Of Peace  
 **Fandom** : X-Men First Class  
 **Author** : [](http://phantomreviewer.livejournal.com/profile)[**phantomreviewer**](http://phantomreviewer.livejournal.com/)  
 **Rating** : PG-13  
 **Disclaimer:** I certainly don't own any of the X-Men franchise.  
 **Pairing** : None.   
 **Spoilers:** The film. (Training Week. Charles and Erik play chess a lot.)   
 **Warnings:** Past abuse, not much knowledge about X-Men, only seen the film twice and a heavy handed metaphor.  
 **A/N** : I like to whump my favourite characters, a little research tells me that Charles’s childhood at the manor wasn’t quite the delightful life of Little Lord Fauntleroy that we (re: Erik) tend to imagine…  
 **Summary** :  _"No man is rich enough to buy back his past"_ &  _"There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies."_ -Oscar Wilde

Charles tapped the black rook against his lips considering Erik’s next move.

 

As Erik made it –dragging his bishop halfway across the board to capture the knight defending Charles’ queen- Charles placed the rook down amongst his other captives.

 

“Your strategy is an incredibly aggressive one Erik”

 

Erik simply harrumphed as Charles moved a pawn towards its ultimate goal.

 

“And yours is cowardly. With an objective in sight you should just, act.”

 

Charles’ final bishop was taken by Erik’s queen.

 

“There is always time for reconciliation-”

 

 “You’re naive Charles. That’s not the way that the real world works. I was never given a chance and you have to fight violence with violence.”

 

Erik’s hand tightened on the pawn he’d just taken.

 

“No, my friend that is not the way, especially if violence has not yet been offered.”

 

Charles’ watch was tightening around his wrist, and Charles winced before closing his eyes and _“Erik, please-”_

 

Erik snarled momentarily before Charles’s arm was jerked forward by his watch and his elbow dashed the edge of the chessboard knocking the white queen and the black king down into each other, with the white knight rolling off the table.

 

“Erik, let me go.”

 

Erik leant forward until their faces were only inches away, and Charles’ hand dropped fractionally for a moment until Erik caught that same hand in a vice-like grip.

 

He jerked Charles’ clasped wrist towards his temple.

 

“Charles, go on, tell me that I had a different choice in the camps, tell me if there was any way that I could have survived without violence-”

 

 _A child’s scream. Thick with tears and suffering and a cry of “please, please don’t do this to me”. Tears. Fear. Blood stained pyjamas. Small hands worrying the silk cord of the dressing gown. A small boy standing in the forefront of his mind, pity, sadness and fear bleeding though into his very consciousness._

 

The image shattered like broken glass but Charles wrenched his hand out of Erik’s grasp.

 

“Erik. I apologise, I-” Charles shook his head momentarily, and Erik had the feeling that it wasn’t designed for him“- I’ve got to go and explain to Raven. I’m afraid that I may have projected that image to the household. I suppose that the children would have been alarmed if that image launched itself unwelcomed into their minds. I am so sorry Erik.”

 

A child’s scream can drain a man of his anger.

 

Charles would normally have picked up the knight from the floor on his exit, but instead he just pulled the door too, he couldn’t let it slam shut. Not in the silent old house.

 

It didn’t take Charles’ brain power to work out that the screaming boy –although the boy hadn’t moved a muscle in the image, he’d been screaming out of his mind- was Charles when he was younger. But Erik didn’t know why.

 

Instead he righted the chessboard.

 

This wasn’t a game that they would continue and the adjacent king and queen were returned to their opposing positions.

 

Erik strummed his fingers on the table waiting for Charles to return.

 

The door was understated when it opened, as if it were pushed by the wind.

 

The hinges creaked as Erik closed the door with a flick of his fingers, he hesitated over the lock mechanism but let it be.

 

“I’m sorry old friend. I’m afraid I quite alarmed Alex, it apparently released a memory for him that was… unpleasant. I’ve not projected like that in years. It’s not a nice experience for all involved. I’m sure you’re aware.”

 

Charles sat back in his seat, dragging the chair away from the desk, picking up the nearest chess piece- the white rook- and worrying it between his fingers. It could have been a silken cord, easily.

 

“Anyway, I owe you an explanation, my friend.”

 

He passed the chess piece from his left hand, to his right and back again.

 

 “I never told you I was beaten regularly as a child; did I ever tell you that Erik? It is not the sort of thing that one speaks about in polite company of course. And it's certainly not the sort of thing that one shares to anyone but the most trusted of friends. And even then…”

 

Charles blinked, bowing his head so that Erik couldn’t see when he eventually opened in his eyes.

 

“Raven knew, she delights in telling me that she was my only friend in those years, I'm afraid to admit that that was true, it was hard not for her to know, living in this house after all. I made sure to deflect the worse away from her, I could say that it is thanks to such events in my childhood that I no long project apart from when under the greatest stress, I didn't want Raven to feel it you see, it wasn't right to feel even a modicum of the pain designed for me.”

 

The rook danced between his fingers in the way that children rolled coins over their knuckles.

 

Erik felt his own coin burn in his pocket.

 

“I believe I scared my stepfather to a certain amount, I admit I was an uncanny boy, but I certainly scared Cain. My step-brother didn't understand empathy you see, and so thought that my attempts to help him were... he found his peace through violent means.”

 

Charles’ hands froze.

 

Erik found it easier to look at his hands than at his head, which still hadn’t looked up.

 

He’d asked how Charles coped.

 

The metal rattled in the window fixings.

 

“I had them forget about Raven, but it was kinder you see, at least I believed it at the time. Kinder for them not to know her at all, than to know her and hurt her like they did me. I don't know if she ever forgave me of that. She certainly didn't forgive the time that I made her forget what she saw, you have to remember that I was only young and my control was weak. I gave her back her memory as soon as I was able.”

 

It was only because he was focusing on Charles’ hands around the chess-piece that he could see them shaking around his grip. The shake in his hand echoed the faint break in his voice.

 

“Charles, you’re rambling.”

 

Charles placed the white rook on the table with a gentle tap, and looked up catching Erik’s eyes.

 

He smiled, tightly and quickly, but the illusion was put in place.

 

Charles hid just as much as Raven did.

 

Just in a different way.

 

“Am I? I’m so sorry. This isn’t something that I normally talk about, and try not to think of. It was a long time ago and I have forgiven them both, only, occasionally there are triggers-”

 

“-like my hand around your wrist?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Erik swallowed and placed his right hand on the table, loosening the fist and turning it so it laid palm open.

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-” _“Of course you didn’t Erik, don’t trouble yourself with my past, when your own is such a burden to you”_ “- Charles! What happened to you is not forgivable just because of what happened to me.”

 

Charles cut off his anger by placing his fingers in Erik’s outstretched hand.

 

Erik tightened his fingers over Charles’.

 

There was still anger, residual from their previous argument and from the revelations that had come, but for now… There was very little that he could give Charles. Charles had saved his life, had given him a chance in life, a place to live, friends for the first time since he started running, an option that wasn’t murder or die- even if he wouldn’t, couldn’t take it.. And Erik could never repay that. Knew that one day he would crush Charles’ never ending optimism. But, for now, Erik could give him peace.


End file.
